Jason Terry not buying Spurs as the NBA’s best team

The Spurs and Dallas will meet Thursday night in a game that already was a grudge battle between the top two teams in the Southwest Division.

Dallas guard Jason Terry has added more fuel to the fire with a comment to the Dallas Morning News that scoffs at the Spurs — despite their NBA-best 26-4 record.

“It’s still a fight. But we’ve positioned ourselves now to go out and have a great season,” Terry told the News. “I think personally we’re better than every team in the league. And that’s no disrespect to the Spurs or anybody.”

The Mavericks won the only previous game the two teams this season, claiming a 103-94 victory at the AT&T Center on Nov. 26.

“Our core group is all veterans,” Terry said. “We take pride in going into other people’s gym and kicking their butt. That’s the thing about us. It doesn’t matter where we’re at.”

The Spurs have a two-game lead over the Mavericks starting the week. TNT analyst Charles Barkley flatly predicted that Dallas would be ahead of San Antonio by the time the two teams meet on Thursday night.

“They’re playing well,” Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki said of the Spurs. “Good teams play hard, and you have to give them credit. It almost seems like they changed their philosophy a bit, but for some reason, the Spurs always win. They used to win games, 75-74, and now they win games 110-109, but it’s the same thing. They always win.”